Avery sent full power to the Dauntless' thrusters and aimed to close in on Atlas' vessel.

To pierce through his opponent's defenses, the best way was to get in close and fire his plasma launchers.

Even large vessels could not block the superheated plasma easily, so no matter how strong Stifur had made their craft's shielding and armor, it probably would not be able to take more than one hit. A second would pretty much guarantee that the ship would be destroyed.

Naturally, with his wealth of experience as a mercenary that went well beyond what Avery had; Atlas was well aware of this.

In terms of speed, his ship was never going to beat the Dauntless, but there were other ways to prevent an enemy from getting closer.

Obviously, the team at Stifur that had designed Atlas' vessel knew that attacks that could penetrate through defenses would be a major weakness. That was why the weapon systems that had been chosen were meant to compensate for this.

Four high rate of fire laser blasters served as the ship's main weapons.

Using them, Atlas kept a consistent barrage of fire targeting the Dauntless and forcing Avery to take evasive action to prevent his shields from being quickly worn down.

This slowed his approach, and Atlas used this opportunity to backway and keep some distance. It was clear that he was not going to let Avery get close enough to hit him with his plasma launchers.

Avery did not remain passive though and just allow himself to one-sidedly get blasted.

Whenever an opening presented itself, he fired off a volley from his three heavy laser cannons.

While Atlas' ship was designed with concentrated fire that would wear down an opponent in mind, the Dauntless had been equipped mostly with weapons that could cause a great deal of damage with only a single shot. With only the auto turret breaking this mold.

"I hate to admit it, but he is really good." Kasandra said, her teeth grit as she released another batch of chaffs and decoy beacons to make it difficult for their opponent to lock onto the Dauntless.

Avery had to agree with her after seeing how expertly Atlas was fighting them off.

He was keeping them from getting too close with an endless spray of laser fire, and whenever it seemed that Avery was about to break through, he would deploy seeker missiles that had to be addressed and would slow Avery down enough to keep him from getting into range with his plasma launchers.

Then there was the man's own evasive maneuvering.

Despite piloting the slowest ship in the entire competition, Atlas was able to avoid most of the shots from Avery's laser cannons.

Every time he would find the best way to minimize damage, often flying directly into one blast to avoid the other two.

His ship was bulky enough to absorb the shots Avery's heavy laser cannons for quite a while. In a war of attrition, Atlas was clearly going to come out on top.

'He's also probably hiding at least one other weapon system. Just like I am.' Avery thought.

So far, Atlas had only used six different weapons. Considering that the Dauntless was equipped with nine, there was a very good chance that Atlas' ship had other armaments that could be deployed at any moment.

Avery's hand hovered over the trigger to fire a phasic torpedo, but he held himself back.

Even if he did fire his most destructive weapon that he had kept hidden so far, it likely was not going to be able to hit Atlas from the current range he was at.

As soon as he launched it, the other man would definitely focus all of his fire on the torpedo since it constituted an immense threat. No doubt it would become disabled before reaching the intended target.

And while this might have been enough to create an opening for Avery to approach and get into a more favorable position, he probably would not be able to win outright this way. There would not be enough reward for revealing his trump card here.

"How's Liesel doing?" Avery asked while keeping his focus on the fight in front of him.

Hastily Kasandra pulled up a side view from one of the Dauntless' exterior cameras on the console in front of her.

She also focused some of the sensors in that direction and got an accurate reading of how Liesel's fight with Jack Huxley was going.

"She seems to have him on the run, but he's fighting completely defensively to prevent being taken out. I think that she'll probably win eventually. Though, it's going to take some time."

This certainly was not what Avery was hoping to hear.

At this point, he was fairly sure that he was not going to beat Atlas in a one-on-one duel. At least, not without resorting to some pretty drastic measures that put him at risk.

Considering how much more experience Atlas had over him, it was likely that he would be able to counter any of the dangerous strategies Avery had thought about employing.

As of right now, he felt that his best bet was waiting for Liesel to take out her opponent, and then the two of them could target Atlas together.

Nevertheless, this meant that everything hinged on a race against time. Whether Avery could survive long enough until Liesel finished off Jack was still up in the air. If he got beaten first, Atlas and Jack would pincer Liesel and take her out.

There was also the third battle between Cerise and those ranked fourth, seventh, and eighth to worry about. Once that fight ended, there was no telling what was going to happen.

'I'm only just barely able to handle Atlas by myself as it is.' Avery thought as he traded some more fire with his opponent.

Except, turning a bit of his attention towards the other fights going on did open him up to some new ideas.

So far, he had just been engaging in a duel with Atlas.

He obviously wanted to win and had been putting his all into doing so. It was a bit of a matter of pride. He wanted to show that he was better.

Regrettably, the longer he fought with the man, the more Avery realized that he was outclassed.

In terms of specs, their vessels were quite different, but they did have one thing in common. Both of them were top-of-the-line vessels created by large shipbuilding corporations.

In most of the fights he had been in, Avery had the edge when it came to the quality of his ship. This time though, that was not the case.

Being a six star mercenary with decades of experience, Atlas was simply better than Avery was currently.

"Kasandra, contact Liesel for me. I think we're going to need to change up our plans a bit."

Nodding her head, Kasandra sent a garbled message out over a wideband frequency.

Naturally, everyone else picked this up, but there was no meaning behind it. For everyone except Liesel, this would have just seemed like some sort of attempt at distraction.

However, this was the signal that Avery had agreed upon with his temporary teammate signaling that he had something to say. Since the data that had been given to him only allowed him to receive the encrypted frequency, Liesel had to be the one to initiate contact.

Fortunately, it was not long before she opened up the line of communication, and Avery explained his plan to her.

"Sounds good to me. I'm getting tired of chasing this slippery bastard around. He may not be good at fighting, but he certainly knows how to run away." Liesel responded, a hint of agitation on her face.

With their new plan of action having been decided on, Avery started making more mistakes on purpose, feigning that he was reaching his limit.

Slowly he made it seem like he was losing distance away from Atlas and getting farther from getting into range with his plasma launchers.

Yet, once he was just at the edge of Atlas' laser blasters effective range, he swiftly turned the Dauntless around and charged towards where Liesel had been leading Jack Huxley.

For a bit Avery had been focused on trying to beat Atlas by himself, but this event was not a series of duels. It was a free-for-all battle.

There was no point in him continuing to engage in a losing fight. So instead, he was going to change things up.

Almost immediately, Atlas realized what Avery was planning and took off after him.

Except, this was where the biggest weakness of his ship came into play. Its thruster only had about sixty-eight percent of the power that the Dauntless' had. He just could not keep up.

It did not take long for Jack to notice what was going on, and he maneuvered so that he could take a wide arc around Avery and try to get behind Atlas so that he could use his temporary partner's ship as a shield.

This might have actually worked, if not for the fact that there was another battle closing in from that direction.

Cerise was doggedly being pursued by three other competitors. She had been trying her best to fight back, but the situation was difficult for even someone as good as her.

When she noticed that the other two battles going on were getting closer to her position, however, she had chosen to fly towards them and make things more chaotic in a bid to get out of her current predicament. Just as Avery had anticipated and wanted.